Women’s Economic Empowerment and Political Participation Women’s economic empowerment has long been an arena of gender equality struggles and discourse; this is not surprising given its immediate relation to concerns women face on a daily basis: income generation, purchase of needed goods and services, continued access to resources, and material security throughout one’s lifetime. Below is a work-in-progress diagram of how women’s economic empowerment is founded on the extent of their power (determination) over resources available that they can use to develop themselves, their families, communities and 5 environment. Resources are broadly categorized into four: natural resources (e.g. land, water, forests, minerals underground); women’s labor which is a convergence of her physical attributes, physiological and mental health, and education and training, among others; relevant and scientific information; and technology, including digital technologies. Economic empowerment refers to women’s progress from simply users of what is available (access), to owners of resources (ownership and control), and lastly, active agents in defining how these resources are to be enhanced, shared and sustained (development). Women’s political participation is crucial element in the movement across levels. It entails engaging and claiming a space in traditional political power structures, at the same time, and redefining the political institution itself which is an apparatus of State patriarchy. This is not an easy challenge, given the multiple burden of women in society and the layers of discrimination they face, stemming from intersecting identities. While the patriarchal State may be willing to concede to gender equality provisions, it will be in their own terms, and often through isolating “women’s issues” from the bigger picture of human rights violations which impact women, for instance, the government’s willingness to decriminalize prostitution but without corresponding measures to increase women’s capabilities and opportunities for income, employment or livelihood so they will no longer consider prostitution as an option. Asserting ownership and control of natural resources is another blind sport in the government’s approach to women’s economic empowerment: the State may be open to changing administrative policies that excludes women’s names in land ownership, but will be aggressive in blocking women’s lobby against infrastructure projects that will negatively impact the already little natural resources women and their families own, control or from where they draw their means of living. From the UN Women conversation with women’s organizations , increasing women’s capacities for collective leadership (in contrast to the traditional individual-centered, personality-based leadership) and organizing is a critical foundation for their political participation; removal of barriers to women’s leadership – including, threats to community organizing and the shrinking space for dissent – and opening opportunities for them to assert this power from the community to national and international levels are also needed, and where women’s organizations can play an important role. The ideas underlying the diagram are strongly influenced by the Women’s Empowerment Framework of Sarah Longwe (1998), although consolidating the her five levels (welfare, access, awareness, participation, and control) to three, and identifying “development of resources” as the final level. To some extent, it is also influenced by Martha Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach (2011). 5